A puppy buyer told me about this surgery that the vet was performing the morning of the surgery. The deed was done so I was unable to get involved. My puppies are from passing linage of hips and the puppy was showing no signs of lameness. All puppies in the litter have been getting excellent comments from vets saying how well they are. The vet convinced this family it was to prevent HD and to neuter at the same time. Puppy was between 4 and 5 months. The puppy has recovered well from surgery but I worry about the outcome. Has anyone had experience with such a procedure and if so what was the outcome? I gave all information to buyer and thought they were educated about the importance of early spay and neutering. But once again the vet knows best and the family will do anything for this puppy.

Thoughts on this welcomed.

I would be OUTRAGED as the breeder of a puppy who was butchered this way!!!!
This surgery is a SICK way for vets to make money!!
Was this puppy Penn Hip'd as this article suggested??

http://www.vetsurgerycentral.com/jps.htm

If you enter JPS in the search box, previous posts about this surgery will come up.

This doesn't answer your question but I'm so elated by the way things worked out that I have to share my story.

When a pup I bred was about three months old, his owner's vet insisted that he was dysplastic and needed neutering and JPS surgery. Her diagnosis was based on how his hips “felt” to her and the way he ran across the floor. The pup's owner is a very intelligent woman who refused to accept the vet’s diagnosis despite being pressured to have the surgery immediately and being made to feel like a bad person for not complying at once. She went to my vet for a second opinion and was told there was nothing to indicate need for surgery. Although that eased her fears, she’s always had a little niggling doubt about whether she’d done the right thing.

Less than a week ago, however, she was totally vindicated. Her beautiful boy had his prelims done (at almost 14 months old) and his hips and his elbows look GREAT! YAHOO!!!

She intends to send that obnoxious vet of hers the official OFA prelim results when they get here. CAN’T WAIT!!!

We went through this, and I posted about it previously.
Male pup at vet for a microchip insertion. Vet took it upon herself to proclaim the pup dysplastic - no xrays. "He bunny hopped." Surgery estimate $900+, which included neuter. Vet yelled at me when I refused permission.
Got second opinion at another practice. Pup had normal hips for pup his age. No surgery for him.
Fast forward to last week - he had OFA prelims and everything is just fine.
In our case, I think the first vet is an early spay/neuter fanatic and wanted the fees for the surgery.
Thanking the Lord for our breeder who supported us and was there every step of the way. And she still is.
Oh, and btw, it's our FORMER vet who wanted to operate on my puppy.
In addition to informing puppy buyers about your feelings regarding early spay/neuter, I think it is important to educate them about JPS. There is alot of information about it on the web. Seems that some vet practices do it routinely during the spay/neuter operation. But it needs to be done prior to the age of 20 weeks before the growth plates close (on the spine????)

After a friend had someone try that with one of her puppy's and wanted HER to pick up the cost I put it in my contract that it is not covered and doing it will invalidate any other health claims. Just something to think about and yes it's one more thing I had to add to the contract to cover yourself and the puppy.

"Vet took it upon herself to proclaim the pup dysplastic - no xrays. "He bunny hopped."

Well, if that were the case to base dysplasia on, all my girls would be dysplastic. They love to " Bunny Hop " just for fun and their hips are OFA Good.

By the way, one of my vets does do that JPS surgery and has been for many years with great success. Works great on breeds like German Shepherds, known for Dysplasia. AGain, as with anything, you just have to be careful that your vet is knowledgeable about this surgery. This surgery was originally for dogs who are prone to dysplasia or for families who don't want to have to worry about their dog developing non functional dysplasia. If the dog isn't going to be bred then this surgery can be a positive thing. The only thing I don't agree on is the vets neutoring and spaying at the same time they do the JPS as this needs to be done at such a young age for it to be effective.

http://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/abs/10.2460/javma.230.2.206

This is just one article I can find right now.

Interesting.
I note that the abstract of the article ends
"Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—Results suggest that JPS and TPO have similar effects on hip joint conformation in dogs with moderate to severe hip dysplasia but that neither procedure eliminates the hip joint laxity characteristic of hip dysplasia or the progression of degenerative changes."
Let me repeat, the angles increase, but neither procedure eliminates the laxity--which I would expect--NOR THE PROGRESSION OF DEGENERATIVE CHANGES in the truly dysplastic dogs, even at the young age of 2 yrs.
Wow. That would be a deal breaker for me. Would have to read the whole article and others, but it seems like an engineering strategy in search of a reason to be done--and no reason given in the research article. Glad I put most of the dysplastic rescues on supplements instead!

When this happened, I searched the web for actual studies that were done and found this one. The thing that struck me was this study used dogs that were diagnosed as having moderate to severe HD. The procedure wasn't done on these dogs as a prophylactic measure.

For the dogs in the study, the TPLO and the JPS surgery had the same effects, except that I think the JPS surgery has an easier recovery for the dog.

The other information I found were articles written by veterinarians who were explaining the procedure to prospective clients, so I read those with that in mind.

I have an older dog with moderate/severe HD, so I was estremely concerned when the vet proclaimed the pup dysplastic. With no xrays, no symptoms.

Knowing what I do now, if I had a puppy that had symptoms of HD, then I would get a Penn Hip xray done by someone who knows how to do them. If the pup were indeed dysplastic, then JPS might become an option for the dog.

As far as cauterizing the growth plates on the spine of a growing pup who isn't dysplastic "just in case," and an early spay/neuter at the same time...no. Not for me and definitely not for my dogs.

Charlotte, if you want to post your email address I'll send you the whole article.

Added my email to link below. Thanks for the article.